Almost everywhere you see garbage bins in Crete, you see cats and their kittens.
They try to survive...
They find leftovers from taverns and restaurants.
Many locals, tourists and expats also give food and leftovers.

Still, it's not enough. In the warm months they need more food and in particular more water.
In the winter, they need more food and medication.
That's why, three times per week, Kriticat feeds stray cats at various locations along the coast, between Koutsounari and Makry Gialos.

I get help from a friend who's driving me to these locations on one of these three days, and she does most of the feeding in Koutsounari and Ferma.
On the two other days, I do the feeding rounds with the bicycle, which is about a 20km round-trip.
It keeps me in shape, but a vehicle would be better: it would be possible to trap sick/injured animals and take them to the vet.

On the feeding rounds and at home of course, I often give kitty biscuits with deworming pills inside.
This is mostly important to kittens in the first months of their lives, but ideally given frequently as they get older too.

Instead of pills, I often give Spot-on. It depends on the cat and the situation.
Not all cats eat the biscuits, or they spit out just the pill, and some cats are not tame enough to approach for spot-on.

Many adult cats here have been living on the streets for years.
They will greet you when you approach them with food, but most will be cautious in case you come too close or when you try to touch them.

Some of these cats have been helped before by people giving them food with de-worming meds inside.
Some of them may have even been trapped for neutering: see if they have a cut in one of their ears which indicates they have been neutered.
I try to trap as many female cats as possible for neutering.
Equally important are the kittens.
If we want to decrease the suffering and increasing numbers of stray cats, the kittens have to be trapped while being healthy, at about the time they start eating independently and stop relying on the mother's milk and help.
Spring and summer kittens usually have much better chances of survival with the warm temperatures.
Between October and April, many cats have reduced immunity and viruses are spread.

This is why I choose to trap as many kittens as possible in the warmer months, before they get weak and sick. They can then be vaccinated and neutered and be offered for adoption.
Still, sick or injured cats are found all year round. They are rushed to a veterinarian before joining a colony and donations are then raised to be able to pay for any treatment. After the last viral outbreak, cats who have been found to carry a contagious virus will only enter one of the colonies if all the other cats have been vaccinated at least a few weeks before.
I have one specialized cage for trapping at this time, but sometimes it works by luring them, with food also, in or near a transport box, and getting them inside of that box with protecting gloves.

As I don't have a vehicle, I pay a friend for petrol. Each visit to the vet is a 100km trip in total and costs about 20 Euros. The nearest veterinarians are over 28km away in Ierapetra.
Every month, there are about six to twelve trips to the vet.
It's a real shame there is no veterinarian in Makry Gialos, and there should be one as soon as possible.
I'm sure if one came, he would do good business here.

At the vet, healthy cats are immediately vaccinated.
In the case of a sick or an injured animal, they require antibiotics before vaccination.

Once they are healed, they can receive vaccinations.
The most important; the core vaccinations, are for;

• FCV > Feline Calici Virus
• FHV > Feline Herpes Virus
• FPV > Feline Panleukopenia Virus
• Rabies

Others vaccinations are for;

• FLV > Feline Leukemia Virus (especially for kittens)
• URTD > Upper Respiratory Tract Disease; Bordatella (recommended for cats living in colonies)
• FHM > Feline Hemotropic Mycoplasmosis
• URI > Upper Respiratory Infection; Chlamydia

When the veterinarian declares a cat healthy, the core vaccinations are administered immediately.

When the time is right and the budget is available, the cats are neutered. Many cats have been neutered thanks to the amazing effort of the Arche Noah Team in collaboration with the municipality of Ierapetra and a few veterinarians who offer their clinic for use;

Arche Noah Website Arche Noah
Facebook page
and with the support of the Greek Cat Welfare Society; GCWS;

GCWS Website GCWS
Facebook page
When neutering is urgent, cats are neutered at a local veterinarian with the help of donations.

Visit the Cats page if you would like to consider adopting a furry friend.
There are many sweet ones to choose from and besides the core vaccinations, the other vaccinations, neutering and further requirements for adoption are in progress.

If you, as a visitor or a local, find a sick or injured cat or dog, please do things in this order:

1. If the animal is very shy/defensive; keep your distance, as it will do what it can, despite its condition, to get away from you and we won't find it again to help it. Some animals, in some instances, can be picked up without issues, others definitely not.
2. Try to tag the location with your cellphone's Location functionality & Google maps.
3. Make pictures and/or video of the animal by itself and in the immediate area it's in, so that the place where the animal is likely to be found, can be found easily by trappers.
4. Make a telephone call to the nearest municipality and ask them to come for the animal.
   Tell them you will wait until they get there. It is their responsibility to collect sick or injured animals, take them to a veterinarian, and let it heal in the municipal shelter.

Ierapetra >
2842 340371 Sitia >
2843 023037 Agios Nikolaos >
2841 340135 Heraklion >
2810 336122 Rethimnon >
2831 057940
If the municipality doesn't help, you can contact Kriticat and take the animal to a veterinarian yourself. You can then explain what happened; that you called for help but it was not provided.

You can then say to the veterinarian that Kriticat is waiting for a call from him or you, from one of the vet's numbers; to discuss the future of the cat.
At this moment, Kriticat will only work with the following veterinarians, in Ierapetra;

Papanikolaou Sotirios >
2842 025455 Spyrou Agapoulaki Marinela >
2842 071274
Please, resist the urge to trap healthy cats and kittens yourself using unsuitable materials.
Many cats feed theirselves and their kittens near garbage bins and kittens should not be taken away from their mother unless they are sick or injured.

Kriticat aims to feed and take care of as many cats in the area as possible, but bears no responsibility, as a non-profit volunteer organisation, to animals which can not be saved in time or animals dying after trying to rescue them.
I am not a veterinarian, Kriticat is not a clinic, so an injured or sick cat really has to be taken to the vet first.

It's usually not possible for me to unexpectedly take an animal to the veterinarian myself because of the lack of transport and safety issues for other cats.
I do not have a vehicle to transport animals myself; I rely on fellow volunteers and a friend I pay for petrol.
Kriticat relies on donations and the help of a few volunteering friends to make it all happen.
I'm forever grateful for these donations, coming from touristic visitors, big foreign organisations, locals and expats.
Despite that, there is still not enough budget for transport, isolating cages, territory fencing and sufficient medication.
This fact, together with some hard lessons learned and to protect the current colonies I'm taking care of,
it is currently not possible to help with cats outside of my area. There are volunteers and shelters in all areas in Crete and the work in our own region/city is overwhelming enough as it is.

Lessons learned also, I will not trap kittens, with or without their mothers who they might still depend on, per request. It's so good when people are concerned over stray animals but there are limits. When the cats are healthy, they can stay where they are, to get food and de-worming. If you come accros an animal you wish to adopt, call me.